FORT MYERS, Fla. — Hospital systems in Southwest Florida are taking measures to shorten wait times at emergency rooms. Lee Memorial patients typically wait about an hour and a half to see the first available doctor. But patients with life-threatening heart attacks, strokes and traumatic injuries take precedence, the News-Press reported. However, this could soon change. Lee Health is placing a stand-alone ER at Coconut Point and adding a 275-bed expansion at Gulf Coast Medical Center to alleviate the problem. The hospital also began a program 18 months ago that allows community physicians to admit patients directly to bypass the ER. NCH currently has a stand-alone ER on Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road. Chantel Roque, a Lee County resident, is glad something is being done about the long wait times. “Sometimes, it [the wait] can be two hours, five hours, just however busy it is,” she said. “That sounds great if they can do something like that. People don’t want to go to the ER and wait, so they prolong it as long as they can and get sicker.” Hospital recommend that seasonal residents, meaning those who live in the area for at least two months, get established with a local physician and only to go to the ER if it’s an emergency.